Article here. Excerpt:

'Maryland lawmakers introduced two bills this year that would teach “affirmative consent,” an impractical sexual-consent standard common on college campuses, in public school sex-ed classes. One was a countywide pilot program; the other would apply statewide.

Apparently the House of Delegates didn’t want to wait to see how the program worked in Montgomery County, just outside Washington, D.C.

The Washington Post reports the statewide “yes mean yes” bill (HB 1560) passed overwhelmingly in the House, with bipartisan support, and will be taken up in a Senate committee hearing April 5. (See how your member voted here.)'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Equality activists have praised a "courageous" Plymouth University student for fighting an "appalling decision" banning him from setting up a men's forum on campus.

Yesterday The Herald reported on 21-year-old Will Styles, who was told equal opportunities legislation only applies to groups who have suffered "historic and ongoing discrimination".

His bid to establish a men's forum, to run alongside the existing women's forum, was rejected by the University of Plymouth Students' Union (UPSU).

Campaigner Mike Buchanan, who runs an organisation called Justice for Men and Boys, said: "We wish this courageous young man every success in establishing a men's forum.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men today are relearning social etiquette in an age of renewed feminism.

Despite societal advances toward feminist policies and attitudes, women are still sometimes condescended to, overlooked and objectified. Men who resort to the lessons of their fathers and grandfathers may intend to be chivalrous but come off as lacking professionalism.

It all makes for a tangy soup of awkwardness.

"I don't think anyone knows what the new rules are," said Jackson Katz, an author and educator on feminist issues. Katz and other men like him identify as "pro-feminists," meaning they support feminism — defined as social, political and economic equality between the sexes — but recognize the centrality of women to the movement.

Men and women, he said, are constantly renegotiating their terms, making proper etiquette a moving target. So, how can men who identify as feminists avoid social hiccups? Here's what experts say:'

Article here. Excerpt:

'I mention this only because, as I’ve dipped my toe into these roiling and shark-infested waters of family law the past 10 days and been overwhelmed with email that breaks my heart, I was unprepared. I had little idea how bad it was.

I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of notes; on a gender breakdown, probably 80 per cent are from men, 20 per cent from women.

I’ve heard from family court lawyers, some of whom are angry at my suggestions that fathers get the tough end of the stick in child custody cases (though the actual evidence is reasonably clear that they do), some of whom say “the whole system is B.S … one of the first things out of my mouth when I see someone is, ‘What’s your budget and how much does he/she dislike you?’” I’ve heard from judges and former judges and psychologists and counsellors.

Without exception, they agree that the system is beyond broken.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'More men worry about their body shape and appearance – beer bellies, "man boobs" or going bald – than women do about how they look, according to research.

More than four in five men (80.7%) talk in ways that promote anxiety about their body image by referring to perceived flaws and imperfections, compared with 75% of women. Similarly, 38% of men would sacrifice at least a year of their life in exchange for a perfect body – again, a higher proportion than women.

"These findings tell us that men are concerned about body image, just like women. We knew that 'body talk' affected women and young people and now we know that it affects men too," said Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, from the centre of appearance research at the University of the West of England. She conducted the study, of 394 British men, which was commissioned by Central YMCA and the Succeed Foundation, an eating disorders charity.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Battered men desperately sought help for years in California, but their efforts consistently fell on deaf ears. It took four battered men and a 2008 lawsuit by the National Coalition for Men for the California Supreme Court to recognize that men are entitled to equal protection and advocacy support from domestic violence shelters.

Domestic violence accounts for a surprising proportion of violent crime in the United States. Close to one in six murder victims is killed by an intimate partner. Nearly three-fourths of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner.

Because 85% of domestic-assault victims are women, when people think about domestic violence they tend to assume a male abuser and a female victim. Yet a surprising number of men are victims of domestic abuse, although not always at the hands of a female partner.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Four thousand teachers in Australia are to be put through a training program specially designed to help them root out sexism in pre-schoolers.

The regional government in Victoria is developing a course to help educators spot children who “enact sexist values, beliefs and attitudes” from the age of four.

According to The Australian, the new project will cost taxpayers $3.4million AUS ($2.6million US).

A tender document released by state officials cites research showing that kids are already operating within “gendered norms” at pre-school and need “anti-bias” strategies to help educate them out of it.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The city’s $2,000 fine to stop unsafe circumcisions is a mere cost-of-doing-business slap that will do nothing to deter the ­lucrative but potentially disease-spreading ritual, mohels and community members railed Thursday to The Post.

Mohels can rake in up to $1,500 per bris — the Jewish circumcision ritual — and often perform as many as 10 a week — turning the monetary penalty into chump change, experts said.

“A $2,000 fine is like nothing,” fumed Dr. Jeffrey Mazlin, an ­OB-GYN and part-time mohel. “Some of these Orthodox mohelim are doing 10 in a week — they’re full-time mohels — so $2,000 is a slap on the wrist. They could be making loads of money.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Paula Hobbs had been drinking while at a wedding with her boyfriend last fall near Pensacola when she got angry and starting swinging at him, court records show.

Evertt Leslie Humble was working as a DJ at the event and later told deputies he didn’t know why she got mad, but that she hit him several times and threw a glass at him, cutting his face, according to the Escambia County sheriff’s report. A witness finally had to intervene.

Though not as common or as widely publicized, domestic violence experts say abuse against men does happen.

“When we have a male victim, it is a reminder that anyone can be a victim of domestic violence,” said Harbor House CEO Michelle Sperzel.

Orlando police found Humble, 63, dead from multiple gunshot wounds Tuesday evening on the porch of the apartment he shared with Hobbs.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Plymouth University student has been denied the chance to set up a "men's rights" forum - because they do not suffer discrimination.

Will Styles, 21, says there is a women's forum on campus but no equivalent space for male students to seek advice and guidance.

He applied to set up such a platform, but the University of Plymouth Students' Union (UPSU) said equal opportunities legislation only applies to groups which have suffered "historic and ongoing discrimination", adding "those groups do not include men".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'My mother, who grew up in the 1960s, feminism’s heyday, remains a self-described feminist and insists that the term means only that women should have the same rights as men. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word thus: “The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.”

What’s so objectionable about that? By this definition, everyone I know is a feminist, myself included. What sort of backward chauvinist would argue that women shouldn’t have the same rights as men?

The answer, apparently, is Sarrah Le Marquand, an Australian feminist and the editor-in-chief of “Stellar” magazine. In a piece penned for Sydney’s “Daily Telegraph,” Le Marquand argues that female parents of school-aged children should be legally required to enter the workforce and get a job.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Recently a succession of men has been acquitted by the courts and a judge with 40 years’ experience of legal practice wrote to the CPS to say that a pattern has emerged whereby the parties involved know each other, one or both has been drinking or using drugs and each gives a plausible account as to what happened.

There is absolutely no independent evidence so no jury can convict given the requirement of “beyond all reasonable doubt”.

The irate judge ends his missive by suggesting that the CPS must have a different interpretation of cases which stands “a realistic prospect of conviction” from everybody else.

Instead of explaining why such cases are deemed likely to be successful, Ms Saunders calls such views “victim-blaming” and says they have allowed predators to offend with impunity in the past.'

Wikipedia on the author here.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last spring we told you about Springfield College’s long-running attack on a tenured English professor who taught a popular “Men in Literature” class.

It forced him to abandon the course – while retaining women-, Native American- and Asian-focused literature courses – and previously accused him of hate speech for putting up a poster that raises awareness about false rape accusations.

Now this “very ordinary college” is trying to fire Dennis Gouws, National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood writes in The Federalist:

Article here. Excerpt:

'A man falsely accused of rape was jailed for 10 months, denied bail, treated like a social pariah, his lawyer says.

Christopher John Ferguson, 31, faced eight charges, including two of rape, before they were dismissed by Judge Michael Crosbie in the Dunedin District Court on Wednesday.

The complainant was first interviewed by police in 2013 when she was 13 years old. But during cross examination at trial this week, she admitted she had lied about the rape.

Speaking after the trial, Anne Stevens, Ferguson's lawyer, said her client would have been serving nine to 11 years' jail "If the right questions hadn't been asked".

"When the process works very well, then justice is done."

However, at the start of the trial, her client was named and labelled a "kiddy f....." on social media.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Federal judge Robin Camp resigned recently after a majority of senior federal judges across the country recommended his removal. These senior judges concluded the judge, whose impugned “knees together” comment is now well known, “acted in a manner that seriously undermined public confidence in the judiciary.”

There was no evidence of actual undermining of anything. The spectacle did show the effectiveness of gender advocacy. The witness, individual accusers, commentators, attorney general of Alberta (who instigated the review), federal justice minister and majority of members of the Inquiry Committee are women.
...
The danger of gender politics driving this overhaul of law and judicial system is that pickets and protests instill in judges fear of public ignominy and career forfeiture. To question anything complainants say will provoke the wrath of feminists who anoint all female complainants as survivors who must be believed.